And now, the online fun of Mario Kart!

My friend code is 4339-2990-3722.

The old tracks from the N64 version are still deep in my brain.

For some reason, I've found "drifting" to be much easier with the Wiil than with a traditional controller, from say Double Dash. They may have just made it easier.

The problem with the Wiil is gripping it while applying enough pressure to hold down the accelerator; too much of that and my forearm gets tired fast.

Tags: video games
Nurd.status: amused

I got Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the game for which I bought the Wii.

My friend code is 0087-2039-4826.

I've played a bit with the single-player modes, and it's bring back great memories of middle school wasted on the original N64 version.

Tags: video games
Current Location: home
Nurd.status: amused

Riding home today, I heard geese. Between that and the Spring Forward, it's starting to feel like the end of winter! Which is a little bit sad, as winter is my favorite season - except in Boston, where it rains too much and snows too little. Stupid global warming.

Tags: animals, seasons
Current Location: home
Nurd.status: peaceful
Current Music: "Get Down Moses" by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

I'm about to head to my polling place (the Hellenic Cultural Center) and bubble in the oval next to Barack Obama.

I originally decided that I would vote for him if he ran after I read his autobiography Dreams From My Father early last year; it wasn't until MA moved the primary date up to Super Duper Tuesday that I thought that my vote might actually matter. Previously, the MA primary would probably have been too late to decide anything, and I had no worries about MA voting for anyone other than the eventual Democratic candidate.

As for Obama himself, I like his stance on technology and openness (which earned him the endorsement of Lawrence Lessig), as well as his realistic troop-withdrawal plan, and his repeated willingness to negotiate with everyone from belligerent foreign states to Republicans in order to get things done.

A number of my LJ friends have already posted better explanations than this; my peers seem to be going overwhelmingly for Obama. You can see a sample of them as written by ccommack, sammka, and carpenter, among many others.

It is eerie to me how this election is converging towards the plot of the last season of The West Wing.

I only hope my polling place has I Voted stickers.

Tags: politics
Nurd.status: excited

I realized yesterday that I was 25.25 years old on the 25th. Nifty.

Tags: math, me
Nurd.status: contemplative

Thanks to jere7my's [FUN] post, I went to the absolutely excellent Paul & Storm and Jonathan Coulton concert at Johnny D's in Davis Square.

P&S opened (am I the only one who thinks Storm looks like Steve Jobs?), but they did backup on at least half of Coulton's songs. I was introduced to some amusing new music, so I bought a P&S CD and a shirt to add to my Witty T-Shirts line. It also means I can go one more day without doing laundry.

Coulton played a number of the songs that I had heard, most importantly "Code Monkey" (my personal anthem), but also "I Feel Fantastic", "Skullcrusher Mountain", "Re: Your Brains", plus some new-to-me songs. I'll have to get the Thing A Week boxed set, I think; I was out of cash at the concert.

The audience participation was what made it so great - definitely a big geek crowd. The venue is such that I was in the standing area in the back, but I am tall and remembered my glasses, so it mattered little.

Thanks to a poster in the Johnny D's mens room, I learned that a Malian griot is performing there in two weeks; I will definitely have to go to that concert.

Tags: culture, geekery, music
Nurd.status: content

Now people are going to think I have a Kanye West ringtone. I pulled out a short snippet of the Daft Punk song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", because it sounds good on the dinky phone speaker, and I work too much. Almost the exact same sample is used in the background of a new West song, apparently. I make a point of not having popular music ringtones!

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" from Discovery by Daft Punk

Tags: music, technology
Nurd.status: annoyed

So, for kicks, I kept the iPod Touch on active scan the entire length of the 1 and 71 bus routes. Along Mass Ave. there were generally at least 15 detectable wireless networks at any given time, thankfully all password-protected. Among some of the network name highlights:

Wirenizzle
MobileSex
Bush is a Cocksucker
Bluetooth

Tags: public transit, technology
Nurd.status: amused

My local Star Market now carries Victory beers, including Storm King Imperial Stout, Golden Monkey Trippel, and Hop Devil.

I win.

Tags: beer
Nurd.status: ecstatic

Well, I survived. My best estimate is that 700-800 people were there at the event's peak, which was far more than I expected. I suspect that the SWIL equivalents at nearby academic institutions helped mobilize everyone.

There was a preponderance of geeky t-shirts, not just ones from XKCD. I was weird in that I was wearing a boring, collared polo shirt. On the other hand, I didn't want to be "that guy" and wear a shirt from the comic. Plenty of people did that for me.

There was a big wall of signatures - somewhere, on one of them, is a simple "UltraNurd was here." If someone chooses to google that, they will find me.

I chatted for a while with tirerim and carpenter; their presence was not at all surprising, since they live only a few blocks away. I also ran into Mark R., class of something recent; he was at the Swarthmore alumni event a few weeks ago.

I did not see ruthling there anywhere, but she actually took pictures, and I forgot my camera.

The age cohort was not very diverse (a very fast fall-off over the age of... 25, I'd say). A much better male/female mix than I usually see at geeky events; I suppose that's an indicator of XKCD's broad appeal (as opposed to say, Penny Arcade, which to my knowledge is a very male audience).

There were a number of amusing things going on - a tape measure extension contest; some guy wrote out the DeCSS code on a sidewalk; lots of humours signs, posters, and shirts, and generally just a SWIL-write-large kind of crowd. The spectacle alone was entertaining.

Tags: boston, swil, xkcd
Nurd.status: amused